Ear tubes, take two

As most of you know, Silas had ear tubes put in when he was just over a year old, because he had been so susceptible to ear infections as a baby. He's been sick a few times over the past couple months, and during a recent doctor visit, the doctor asked, "Did he get ear tubes put in both ears?" We assured him that he did. He replied, "Well, I only see one in one of his ears, so it looks like one of them has fallen out. I've never seen a permanent tube fall out before!" He also mentioned that it looked like the other one was no longer working properly, as there was quite a bit of fluid buildup. So we scheduled Silas for another surgery.

One week before his scheduled surgery, Silas came down with his second ear infection, after only being off the antibiotics for a week and a half, so we knew he desperately needed the surgery. Then after being on the second round of antibiotics for a couple days, his fever spiked and he had a seizure. (This happened once before, last summer) We were freaking out of course, and we called 911 and the paramedics came and checked him out. After talking to our doctor, he decided Silas was in no immediate danger and he would check him out during our regularly scheduled appointment the next evening. This time, the doctor said the ear infection was gone, but Silas must have picked up a virus for his fever to spike up so quickly like that. (he also explained that the seizures are not necessarily caused by high fever, but rather by a rapid change in body temperature) So the poor kid had gotten some kind of virus on top of his already troublesome ear infection. But as long as he was juiced up with Ibuprofen and Tylenol, he was still our happy little guy! He really has had a pretty good attitude about this whole thing, for the most part.

This past Monday, he went in to get the new ear tubes put in. He did an awesome job. The nurses said he would probably be really cranky and crying after he woke up from the surgery. Here he is, doesn't he look miserable?

We were very impressed by Mercy hospital here in Cedar. Back in the Chicago burbs, this was a 4+ hour ordeal. Here they were amazingly organized. We got there at 6:30am, filled out the paperwork, then at 7:00 they prepped him, did the procedure around 7:30, and he was his happy and awake self by 7:45. We walked out of the hospital around 8:15. You gotta love Iowa efficiency!